Botha denies blame for massacre

BISHO - South Africa's former foreign minister, Mr Pike Botha, has rejected ANC charges that the last white government was to…

BISHO - South Africa's former foreign minister, Mr Pike Botha, has rejected ANC charges that the last white government was to blame for the 1992 "Bisho massacre" of 29 black protesters.

Mr Botha told Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Truth Commission that Mr F.W. de Klerk's government had tried to defuse the confrontation on the border between South Africa and the Ciskei "homeland".

The ANC secretary general, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, blamed the De Klerk government, saying it was the real power behind Ciskei's Brigadier Oupa Gqozo.